Recent Posts

Doug Muder’s Weekly Sift blog is unusually good this week.  (Click below to jump to the articles.)

News War

No facts? What does that mean?

Fake news is like Jessica Rabbit

Each passing day brings headlines that foretell looming chaos and troubles sure to arise from Donald Trump’s White House tenure.  His supporters commonly say that they ignored all his faults and voted for him because he would shake up the Washington Elite.

Be careful what you ask for, I say, but I’m open to the chaos producing something new if we all stay engaged. Renowned economist Tim Harford explains that embracing chaos and mess is the only way to be truly creative, innovative and resilient. Listen and see what your think. (Click for 1 hour Audio Talk) [Read more…] about Can Chaos be a Blessing?

This is offered without comment.  Here are links to a selection of the television political satirists reacting to the election results and the first week of the transition. There are other items of interest as well – just whatever I was moved to watch as I processed the tragedy of our democracy making a grave mistake. Should I say enjoy, or just grit your teeth and deal with it?

Father of us all, we ask forgiveness for the sins that we and our brothers and sisters commit in your name.  We pray for those among us who presume to interpret your will, and pass judgment without compassion. We ask that you imbue each of us with the humility and wonder that opens us to seek to know you, all the while accepting the ultimate impossibility of knowing you completely.  May we never be so arrogant as to believe that in our journey of faith we have finally arrived at the ultimate truth or discovered the absolute unerring interpretation of you.

Give us grace, in our human frailty, to avoid self-righteous certainty.  Let us not think that acts of violence and hate are committed with your blessing or justified in your eyes.  They are, at best, a manifestation of our mortal imperfection; surely they are not your will.  Help us to humbly discern the actions that will preserve and strengthen us in service to you. When threatened, let us be compassionate and forbearing.  When we act to defend ourselves, let not narrow self-interest, nor political ambition, nor rage, nor vengeance blind us to you.  Let us seek strength only so that we may be gentle and kind while preserving liberty and justice.  Make us, as a nation, exemplary – the hope of the peoples of the world.

Let us open ourselves and respect the many and varied traditions in which you have manifested yourself to our brothers and sisters.  Bless each and every one, regardless of belief, to know your love and be uplifted to a more perfect life of faith and wonder.

Richmond Shreve

This was originally written and published August 30, 2005. My wife Marguerite remembered it and suggested republishing it as appropriate for the troubled days that lie ahead of us.

The common safety pin has become an emblem in Europe to signify compassion and caring for immigrants and minorities. There, as here since the election, angry insults and harassment have terrorized people singled out because of their cultural and ethnic origins.

Safety Pin Meme

One aspect of the political divide in the US is tolerance vs. intolerance. It shows up among liberals as the quest to foster diversity and multiculturalism.  On the right it shows up as a demand for other cultures to assimilate, to adopt the norms and values of “regular people” in the community. Unfortunately sometimes it also shows up as bigotry and verbal abuse.

In the best of Bucks County schools there have been incidents. Teachers I know report that students are afraid. Kids are sensitive to the moods of their parents, and they hear more in adult conversation than we think. Even when too young to understand fully, they get and internalize the fear, or anger, or resentment or the hate.

They have seen the TV coverage and ads during the campaign. The man who will soon be President has been modeling behavior and values that nobody wants their kids to emulate.  A great many adults are angry, frightened, and grieving.

The safety pin is an emblem for compassion and solidarity with enlightened citizenship. Its very name “safety” embodies the message. Its function, to link things together, is an apolitical statement of human unity.

I’m promoting the wearing of the pin as a symbol of unification and solidarity behind common principles that transcend nationality and religion and, yes, even political affiliation. Empathy, mutual support, and loving one’s neighbor without exceptions are core values shared by the great faiths and nations.  Cultures that don’t uphold them perish.

The antidote for fear is love and faith. The vehicle for reconciliation is civil discourse. For America to be great we must respect all people, challenge ideas, and denounce hatred.